Psalm 33:16-22 NRSV

16 A king is not saved by his great army;

    a warrior is not delivered by his great strength.

17 The war horse is a vain hope for victory,

    and by its great might it cannot save.

18 Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,

    on those who hope in his steadfast love,

19 to deliver their soul from death,

    and to keep them alive in famine.

20 Our soul waits for the Lord;

    he is our help and shield.

21 Our heart is glad in him,

    because we trust in his holy name.

22 Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,

    even as we hope in you.

Reflection:
When we say that our hope is in the Lord, we are not saying that we expect that nothing bad will ever happen to us. As we pray for protection during difficult times, we realize that the nature of this broken world does not exempt us from hardship. Jesus never promised that his followers would be sheltered from the storms of life. In fact, Jesus warns his disciples in the Gospel of John that there would be hard times ahead. The hope that we have is deeper than our circumstances, it is the promise that God will be with us in the storm and will in the end restore this world. 

Recently, Christian author Shane Claiborne said of our current situation, “I believe in the power of prayer, but I also believe in the power of soap.” I think this perfectly captures the relationship with our hope in the world and our hope in the Lord. We absolutely should follow our government officials’ recommendations and use every resource we have at hand to combat this pandemic. But at the end of the day our hope is not in the government, or our world leaders, or even the medical experts to save us during this time of uncertainty, our hope is in the Lord. 

We can look to the history of God’s people in the book of Judges. A bird’s eye view of this book shows us an endless cycle of the people asking God to send them a human leader to take the place of Joshua—the man God used to lead Israel into the Promised Land—after he died. God does so, and each ruler fails in their own way because the people continue to do “what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 17:6)—except under Deborah’s leadership. We learn that regardless of our human leaders, there will always be mistakes and failings. We all have that inner pull to “do what’s right in our own eyes” instead of hoping in the Lord, living out God’s commandments, and doing what is right in the eyes of God. Jesus showed us that this requires loving and caring for our neighbors. Right now, what is right in the eyes of the Lord is protecting our community’s vulnerable people by washing our hands, wearing masks, and social distancing.

We may not know the timeline or even what everything will look like on the other side, but we have faith that Jesus is with us and is indeed using us to navigate through this current storm. Our hope is in the Lord, and our sight is on what is right in God’s eyes.

Closing Prayer:
O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. Work through all the human resources to bring a swift end to this current situation. Help us all to cultivate your love as the world comes together in a common goal. May we continue to be your light in the darkness, Amen.